The new Panasonic Lumix S9 is essentially an S5II in a smaller body

Designed to appeal to creators that are taking their first step up from a smartphone, the lightweight and compact Panasonic Lumix S9 is all about getting its images online fast.

There’s a lot to like about the new $1499 Panasonic Lumix S9, but the fact that its announcement opens up with the introduction of the four colorways it comes in — for the record, Jet Black, Crimson Red, Dark Olive, and Classical Blue — and doesn’t mention the sensor until the second paragraph tells you a lot about the audience it’s being aimed at.

It’s interesting when it comes, though. Panasonic says that the S9’s circa 24.2-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor is equivalent to the one you will find in the LUMIX S5II, which gives it a certain amount of presence in this market. This is coupled with the company’s latest engine with promises to produce detailed contend with natural tones.

Also similar to the S5II, it features in-built image stabilisation. Panasonic claims 5-axis Dual I.S.2 is rated at 6.5 stops when coupled with a lens that will also do some optical stabilisation work. By itself with a ‘dumb lens’ (L-mount incidentally) its rated at 5 stops.

It also features real-time recognition AF with PDAF (Phase Detection Auto-Focus) for more precise subject tracking performance.

It’s certainly compact. It weighs just 486g/1.08 lb fully loaded without lens. Inevitably there have been somee compromises made to get the S5II innards into this form factor. There’s no physical shutter, a lack of cooling limits 4k recording times to 15 minutes, and its chosen a free-angle rear screen rather than an EVF.

So, what’s new? It introduces MP4 Lite, a new smartphone-optimized Open Gate video mode, for a start. Shooting Open Gate in 4:2:0 10 bit in either 30p or 25p, creators can capture high quality videos in the optimum format for smartphone, and easily resize aspect ratios to suit social media with the also new LUMIX Lab app.

This app allows high-speed transfer of photos and videos from the camera to a smartphone, enables users to easily create original LUT files and transfer them from a smartphone to the camera, and allows quick and easy editing of those MP4 Lite video files optimized for social media sharing.

There’s also a dedicated REAL TIME LUT button on the camera itself to further speed up the process of applying filters to images and getting them online as fast as possible. Indeed, the company claims you can shoot a 5-second video in MP4 Lite, transfer it to a smartphone with LUMIX Lab, and post it to social media in 30 seconds.

Opacity control and grain effect give users further opportunities to play with their picture, and up to 2 LUT files can be applied at the same time.

It comes with Panasonic V-log and there is a decent list of recording formats above and beyond MP4 Lite. This includes Full 6K in up to 29.97 fps 4:2:0 10-bit, DCI 4K and standard 4K in up to 29.97 fps 4:2:2, and frame rates up to 59.94 fps when dropping down to Full HD.

Pricing as already mentioned is $1499 and the Panasonic LUMIX S9 will be available to buy around the end of June.